Conti Solar, a national solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), O&M and energy storage development company, has begun construction on the largest landfill solar project in Ohio. Located in Cuyahoga County, the 4MW project is owned and operated by IGS Solar, a commercial and residential solar provider and an affiliate company of IGS Energy, one of the largest independent retail energy suppliers in the country. The solar project was developed by Enerlogics and...

Soltec, a manufacturer and supplier of horizontal single-axis solar trackers, is opening a new research and evaluation center in the city of Livermore, California, where the company has its US headquarters. Soltec is leveraging its expertise and standard product compatibility with bifacial tracking that stems from the landmark 2015 customer test-bed success of utility-scale bifacial tracking at La Silla, high in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The mission of Soltec’s Bifacial Tracking...

Generating power from the sun isn’t the problem. The technology has been there for decades. Storing that power efficiently, however, has been a challenge. That’s why the Department of Energy has awarded $3 million to engineering researchers at The University of Texas at Austin to overcome the Achilles’ heel of the solar power story since Day One: how to store its energy. To date, most major solar energy systems are bulky and expensive, with inefficient storage...

Sandia National Laboratories will receive $10.5 million from the Department of Energy to research and design a cheaper and more efficient solar energy system. The work focuses on refining a specific type of utility-scale solar energy technology that uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on a tower. The heat from the concentrated sunlight is absorbed by either a liquid, gas or solid and stored or used immediately in a heat exchanger to generate electricity. This type...

Together with its EnergyVille partners, imec has developed a simulation model designed to make the energy network more stable. It also makes the sale of energy more profitable and the work of PV researchers easier in general. Hans Goverde, a PV module technology researcher at imec and EnergyVille, tells us how this can be done. And also how, as a result, solar power is now no longer an ‘unpredictable’ source of energy. A very practical model It was in May of last year...

Nissan launches Nissan Energy Solar, which combines world-class solar panels for home with solar battery storage systems. The solar panels home solution has been designed to allow UK homeowners to use solar panels to reduce energy bills, get more independence from the grid and enable more sustainable living. Traditionally, solar energy has been used to power home appliances during the day, but now with Nissan Energy Solar householders can use the solar battery storage system to store excess...

Vivint Solar, Inc., a full-service residential solar provider, is now offering LG Chem RESU batteries, an energy storage system for household use, directly to its California customers. The company plans to expand this solar plus storage solution coast to coast throughout 2018. Following a customized professional installation by Vivint Solar, the battery immediately stores excess clean energy produced by the solar panels and delivers energy to the home without the customer...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US have developed a nanoresonator coating based on an optical version of a whispering gallery, which describes the phenomenon of sound waves traveling around a concave surface, such as the dome of St Paul's Cathedral in London, perhaps the most famous example of a whispering gallery. The antireflection coating comprises thousands of nanoscale glass beads that trap the light around their curved surface, enabling...

The game-changer for clean energy (also known as Tesla – Elon Musk’s Company) is making waves in the industry of solar energy ever since they decided to make it their business. In true Elon Musk fashion, he decided to get Tesla involved in the niche of solar energy in 2016 when he let the world...

Hawaii is famously reliant on imported fossil fuels, for both electricity and transportation. But that’s changing rapidly as the state invests heavily in renewables. Two new bills are now pending in the Hawaii legislature that would codify the 100 percent renewables goal statewide, up from the current mandate of 40 percent by 2030. HB 623 would require...

In the ongoing wars over solar energy, one power company is consistently painted as the archetypal, mustache-twirling nemesis of clean electricity: Arizona Public Service. So you might be surprised to learn that this same company is about to become a big new producer of rooftop solar power. APS is an unlikely solar patron: In the...

So far, specific details are thin on the new battery designed for home use that Tesla’s announcing next week. But just based on what we do know, it’s a pretty big deal. The quest for a good battery that can store home-generated power is kind of like the holy grail for a renewable energy future. This...